Unit 12: The Concept of Grammar.

Reflection upon Language and its

Learning. From Normative Grammar to Functional-Communicative
Grammar.

 Introduction.

When a linguist decides to describe a language, he/she will have to make reference to
the three major components of a linguistic system: phonology, grammar, and lexicon.
The phonology describes the sound system: consonants, vowels, stress, intonation, and
so on.

With regard to grammar, the two basic units of this discipline are the word and the
sentence. One subcomponent of grammar, called morphology, deals with the form of
words, while the other, called syntax, deals with the way words combine to form
sentences.

The lexicon, or dictionary, lists the vocabulary items, mainly words and idioms,
specifying how they are pronounced, how they behave grammatically, and what they
mean.

On another dimension we can distinguish between the study of linguistic form and the
study of meaning: all three of the major components are concerned with aspects of both.
The special term ‘semantics’ is applied to the study of meaning, and we can accordingly
distinguish phonological semantics (covering such matters as the meanings expressed
by stress and intonation), grammatical semantics (dealing with the meanings associated
with grammatical categories such as past tense, interrogative clause, and so on), and
lexical semantics (the meanings of vocabulary items).

According to Penny Ur, grammar may be roughly defined as the way a language
manipulates and combines words (or bits of words) to form longer units of meaning. For
example, in English the present form of the verb “to be” in the third person has two
distinct forms, one (is) being used with a singular subject, and the other (are) with a
plural subject; and if the plural “are” is combined with a singular subject, the result is
unacceptable or ungrammatical. Thus, a sentence like “this is a book” is grammatical
whereas “this are a book” is not.

Therefore, there is a set of rules which govern how units of meaning can be constructed
in a language: we may say that a learner who knows grammar is one who has mastered
and can apply these rules to express himself in what we could consider “acceptable
language forms”.

Traditionally, grammar has been considered the “sine qua non” of language teaching.
Until recently, it was simply taken for granted. Today, however, grammar teaching in
all its aspects is being questioned. Should grammar be taught at all? Is it a hindrance
rather than a help? Does grammar offer the best organizing principle for a language
curriculum, or, are there other more suitable principles of organization? If grammar,
what kind, traditional, structural, transformational, or any other school of thought?

What is clear is that some knowledge of grammatical rules is essential for the mastery
of a language. Nobody disputes that the foreign student must learn the grammar of
English in the sense that the sentences he produces must conform to English patterns in
the accepted model. For instance, we cannot allow anybody to write “he gave me a
change but when he counted the money they were not enough”.

We cannot be content with communication if it carries such depressing messages to the

reader or listener about the writer’s or speaker’s level of literacy. The learner must
therefore master the conventional use of the grammatical rules of the language he is
studying.

1. The Concept of Grammar.

Grammar is concerned with the descriptions and analysis of stretches of utterance and
stretches of writing, and with the grouping and classification of their recurrent elements
by virtue of the functional places they occupy and the relations they contract with one
another.

Grammar is thus organized on the two dimensions, syntagmatic and paradigmatic. It

may be approached from the point of the grammatical analysis of the existing of
recorded utterances, or from that of the generation of new utterances by grammatical
rules framed for that purpose.

The term grammar has its origin in the Latin grammatica (the craft of letters) and it has
come to be used so extensively that the word grammar applies to different notions.
Thus, it may refer to:

1. The systematic study and description of a language, a group of languages,

or language in general terms, of either syntax and morphology alone or
these together with aspects of phonology, orthography, semantics,
pragmatics, and word-formation: universal grammar.

2. A set of rules and examples dealing with the syntax and morphology of a
standard language, usually intended as an aid to the learning and teaching of
that language. In this sense, a distinction is often drawn between descriptive
grammar, which attempts to present an accurate description of the rules for
actual usage, and prescriptive grammar, which prescribes certain rules for
usage and often proscribes others.

3. In linguistics, a term for the syntactic and morphological system which every
unimpaired person acquires from infancy when learning a language: a
native-speaker’s grammar. In this sense, each person learns and uses a
private system which blends into a social consensus. All speakers of a
language like English, for instance, ‘know’ this grammar; that is to say, they
 can produce more or less viable utterances. This knowledge is implicit and
the use of this natural grammar does not depend on the acquisition of
descriptive or prescriptive grammar.

A grammar describes the speaker’s knowledge of the language; it is a formal device

with a finite set of rules that generates the sentences in the language. The term
‘generate’ (Chomsky) means that once we have the systems of rules, which is finite, we
can deduce language, which is an infinite set of well-formed sentences.

Consequently, a grammar may be defined either as “the way in which words change
themselves and group together to make sentences” (Harmer, 1987), focusing on the
practice of grammar, or “the way a language manipulates and combines words in order
to form longer units of meaning” (Ur, 1988), focusing on the study of grammar.

Grammars are theories of language, composed of more specific hypotheses about the
organization of language. They represent the tacit knowledge that native speakers have
about their language, which includes knowing how to form grammatically acceptable
sentences, knowing what they mean and knowing how to pronounce them. This
knowledge is in the head of the native speakers. When we learn a foreign language we
acquire this knowledge, which has been formalized by linguists in grammatical theories
to build up our grammar competence, one of the subcomponents of communicative
competence as established in our curriculum.

2. Language and Language Learning (Reflecting upon the Language).

The linguistic study of a language –or grammar–, is the study of language as a system of
human communication. This system has a complex structure and it is not very easy to
explain how it is organized and how many levels we can find. Some simple models may
recognize only two levels: form and meaning. More commonly, the notion of form is
subdivided to distinguish different types of abstraction. As suggested above, the
analysis we will perform when studying the components of grammar will make use of a
three-level structure: phonological level, semantic level and syntactic level.

This analysis is based on Chomsky, who considers grammar as the study of language
structure, or even, the language structure itself. The study of linguistic structure is of
paramount importance to language learning. If we want to teach and learn a language,
we have to know what language consists of.

When a student starts to learn a foreign language, she/he has to take into account many
areas. Simply knowing the language (grammar/linguistic competence) is not enough;
she/he has to know when, how and to whom to use it.

In other words, in addition to acquiring the complex rules of the grammar, that is,
linguistic competence, language users must also learn the complex rules of the
appropriate social use of language, what certain scholars have called communicative
competence. These include, for example, the greetings which are to be used, the ‘taboo’
words, the polite forms of address, the various styles which are appropriate to different
situations, and so forth.

Communicative competence embraces five different subcompetences:

1. Grammatical competence refers to the degree to which the language user has
mastered the linguistic code (verbal and non-verbal).

2. Discourse competence concerns the mastery of how to combine grammatical

forms and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written text.

3. Sociolinguistic competence concerns the way grammatical forms can be used

appropriately in various contexts to convey specific communicative
functions.

4. Strategic competence entails the mastery of verbal and non-verbal

communication strategies.

5. Sociocultural competence refers to the degree of familiarity with the culture

and society in which language is used.

This view of communicative competence may be enough as to justify the inclusion of

grammar in a language teaching programme.

However, there are still many arguments about how and when to teach grammar in the
classroom. These can often cloud a teacher’s judgement as he may follow the trends in
language teaching, instead of paying attention to his/her own analysis and assessment of
his/her students’ needs. Discussions often center upon the point of grammar teaching,
and what grammar should actually be taught in the classroom.

3. From Normative Grammar to Functional-Communicative Grammar.

Over the last two centuries prescriptive rules have accumulated into a general
prescriptive tradition for speech and writing which is still to be found embodied in even
the most modern school textbooks and student reference handbooks, no matter how
communicative they may claim to be.

However, language is not now, never has been and never will be a static entity. It is
continuously evolving and changing. Therefore students of a language, although they
need to have rules prescribed to them, also need to have rules described to them. This
simply implies that the students will need to learn the language as it is actually used
today, rather than learning it through theories that are based on what some think to be
correct.

That is to say, to be adequate as a theory of language used in both mother tongue

analysis and foreign language learning, a grammar must fulfil two criteria:
observational adequacy and descriptive adequacy.
A grammar is observationally adequate when it specifies what is and what is not an
acceptable sequence in the language, i.e.: a grammar must distinguish between:

My tailor is rich and *Rich my is tailor (Syntactic adequacy).

John mows the lawn and *The lawn mows John (Semantic adequacy).

/tri:/ and */tfi:/ (Phonological adequacy).

The second criterion is that the grammar must specify the relationships between various
sequences in the language. If a grammar is descriptively adequate, it must explain how a
sentence relates to other sentences that are similar in meaning, opposite in meaning, and
so on.

These two criteria are fulfilled by means of the study of grammar components:
phonological component (sound system), semantic component (meanings in a language)
and syntactic component (relation between sound and meaning).

The Communicative Approach is based on the assumption that students learn grammar
so that they can use it as a tool through which they will have the ability to communicate
in the L2. Therefore, it is desirable that when we begin to teach language to students, we
should not organize it in terms of structures and rules, but in terms of the functions that
the student is likely to wish to perform through the use of the language.

This will certainly mean that grammatical points are going to come up, but the trick is to
ensure that these structures can be systematically related to meanings, uses and
situations. The aim of successful teaching in a classroom where the Communicative
Approach is employed must always take into account the five subcompetences that we
mentioned earlier.

There has to be an integration that allows students to expand their limited command of
the language in actual communicative situations, and gives them help in how to make
up for the lack of grammatical knowledge that they may face at any given point. This
can include the use of strategies and non-linguistic resources such as gestures, which
can help the student to communicate.

This approach must meet the communicative needs and interests of the students,
providing them with the information, practice and experience needed, as well as
knowledge of the foreign language culture.

Therefore, the traditional role of grammar in the L2 classroom will be that of standing
for the functions and the macrofunctions of language in order to have the necessary
basis to be communicatively competent in real life situations. This leads us to the
question of whether or not we should examine language in terms of the form or in terms
of the function.

If we organize a grammar class in terms of the form of the language, we are making
conscious decisions about the imparting of grammatical rules to our students. This
means that our students are acquiring valuable knowledge about the way that they
should be using the language in order to be correct.

The rules are laid out for them and they learn them. Once they have learnt and practiced
a structure, and the teacher feels that they have achieved a sufficient level of
competence, the next structure can be moved onto.

An advantage of this method is that the teacher can check that all that she/he should
have been teaching has been covered in relation to the language. However, as we have
already noted, knowing the rule does not necessarily mean that the student is going to be
able to implement it. For this reason, the function of the language, that which language
is used for, must also be taught. This should enable the student to use the language
communicatively and for its given purpose.

There are many functions that we can apply to language. We can use it to start and
maintain social relationships, argue a point, inform, express emotions and so on.
Grammar should be designed so that not only the rules are taught, but that the rules that
aim at completing these functions are included.

Summarizing, language is actually used to do things, to perform functions (inviting,

apologizing, introducing, suggesting, expressing likes/dislikes, etc.). Instead of teaching
grammar, some may think that we should teach functions. But to perform functions we
need sentences, and sentences are made up of grammatical elements. Therefore,
learners, have to know grammar to perform these functions. They need both to learn
how to perform functions and a grammatical base as well.

4. The Place of Grammar in the Communicative Foreign Language

Classroom.

Grammar was formerly seen as a central activity in second language lessons.

Traditionally, the language classroom was a place where students received systematic
instruction in the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Methodology training
focused on the most effective ways for teachers to present and provide practice in the
target language.

Now, grammar must serve the primary goal of languages: effective communication. But
teaching for communication means teaching students to do things through language and
mastering the grammatical structure necessary to achieve that end. The grammatical
system is used to express meaning, and meaning is the purpose of communication.

Although grammatical competence, grammar, is necessary for communication to take

place, it is not sufficient; on the contrary, it must be regarded as an organizational
framework within which communication operates.

Grammar, however, must not be ignored. It provides the necessary means to achieve a
communicative goal, and therefore cannot be an end in itself but a means. The ultimate
source of accuracy in any language is grammar.
In the 70s, it became fashionable not to teach any grammar, but to simply allow the
students to acquire the language. It has since been realized that this system is inefficient.
If the students do not have some knowledge of grammatical rules to fall back on, then
too many errors may occur. This may not totally affect the ability of the student to make
himself understood, but no-one wants to make more errors than is necessary.

However, grammatical errors are seen differently when emphasis is laid on

communication. They are viewed as an inevitable part of the learning process and a sign
of progression. It is important to involve the learners in the process of error correction,
as they learn more effectively if they can correct themselves rather than if they are given
the correct version straight away. Basically, the emphasis is placed on fluency, not
accuracy.

Consequently, some knowledge of grammatical rules –implicit or explicit– is essential

for the mastery of the language: we cannot use words unless we know how to put them
together, unless we know the elementary communicative structures. Swain has added
that “exposure to the target language in meaningful context is insufficient for most
learners to develop a sophisticated working knowledge of grammar”. In other words,
grammar exists to enable us to ‘mean’, and without grammar it is impossible to
communicate beyond a rudimentary level.

Therefore, some premises about grammar must be considered within the context of the
communicative foreign language classroom:

- Grammatical competence (knowledge and ability to use those rules) is to be seen

as a major component of communicative competence.

- Grammatical competence is necessary for communication to take place, but not

sufficient.

- Grammar must be regarded as an organizational framework within which

communication operates.

- Judicious attention to grammatical form in the adult classroom is essential to a

speedy learning process.

- Six variables must be always born in mind to identify the role of grammar in
language teaching: age, proficiency level, educational background, language
skills, register and needs and goals.

- Generally, an inductive approach to grammatical rules, in which the essence is

learning through self-discovery, is currently more in favor. (A deductive
approach –through previous explanation–, however, seems to be more
appropriate on some occasions).

- Grammar explanations should be avoided as much as possible. If not, these

must: be brief and simple; supported by visuals; be illustrated with clear,
 unambiguous examples; be sensible with the distinct aptitudes in your pupils;
not concentrate on exceptions too much; avoid false information if we are not
sure about a particular aspect.

- Grammar ought to be inserted in general language courses.

- Grammar errors should be corrected provided they do not block communication

or make students feel daunted.

4.1. The Organization of Grammar Teaching.

Ur suggests a fairly traditional four-stage approach to the teaching of grammar items:

presentation, isolation and explanation, controlled practice and testing (production).

The aim of the presentation is to get the learners to perceive the grammar categories in
both speech and writing and to take them into short term memory. The context must be
relevant to our pupils’ experiences so that they can understand the grammar category
fully.

In the isolation and explanation stage, we ensure ourselves that our students understand
the various aspects of the structure under study. Explanation can be given in both
English and the learner’s language.

The main aim of the controlled practice stage is to cause the learners to absorb the
grammar category thoroughly or, to put it another way, to transfer what they know from
short-term to long-term memory preparing them to use it for communication. The
activities we use are carefully directed at this stage, but they will lead to activities where
our pupils use English for communicative purposes in the next stage.

In the testing, production stage, we get our learners to demonstrate mastery; the stress is
on providing feedback, on the production or comprehension of meaning for some non-
linguistic purpose, for some real-life purpose.

There are some factors which definitely contribute to successful grammar learning and
teaching. Penny Ur distinguishes the following:

- Pre-learning: The function of a practice or a production procedure is to

familiarize learners with the material, not to introduce it. Learners should not be
asked to practice or produce material they have not yet been taught.

- Volume and repetition: The more language the learners are exposed to or
produce, the more they are likely to learn. Language structures are easily
forgotten so our pupils need initial volume to absorb them and follow-up
repetition to maintain their knowledge.

- Success-orientation: Practice and production is more effective when based on

more or less successful performance. In addition to this, a successful learner will
develop a positive self-image of himself, which is highly motivating.
 - Heterogeneity: A heterogeneous exercise is an exercise which can be done
successfully with different levels of proficiency. Practice and production tasks
which can be interpreted and performed at whatever level the pupil feels
appropriate are especially important when designing follow-up and remedial
activities.

- Teacher assistance: During the practice and production stages we must support
and assist our pupils in the production of acceptable responses rather than
correct or assess them. It is important to be alert to give the needed help.

- Interest: A well-designed activity must be interesting to our pupils. A boring

activity is never effective.

If we design our grammar category activities along these principles our pupils will
improve their knowledge of the English language.